Fifty Shades Darker
E.L. James, 2012
Romance Economics & businessPsychologyContemporary fiction
A woman returns to the man who hurt her, betting that desire and damage can be separated. The mood is heady and conflicted, with a slow, intimate pace and a voice that keeps circling back to wanting and doubt.
Feels like longing, tenderness and dread. About love, power and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy intense contemporary romance built around longing, power and a woman's conflicted return to a man who hurt her. Be aware that the sexual content is explicit and the relationship's push-pull can feel claustrophobic rather than romantic.
Why read it
It gives you a close view of desire tangled with doubt, and the risky pull of going back to someone who once hurt you.
A page from the book
Some attractions come with the warning already built in.
Christian nods as he turns and leads me through the double doors into the grandiose foyer. I revel in the feel of his hand and his long, skilled fingers curled around mine. The familiar pull is there—I’m drawn, Icarus to his sun. I’ve been burned already, and yet here I am again. E.L. James.E.L. James began Fifty Shades as Twilight fanfiction called Master of the Universe; it was serialized online before publication.
Books that feel like this
More by E.L. James
Fifty Shades of Grey
E. L. James, 2011
A student reporter interviews a controlled young billionaire, and what begins as a nervous assignment turns into a negotiation of desire, power, and boundaries.
Fifty Shades Freed
E.L. James, 2012
A newly married couple with unlimited money and no privacy: the third book is about what happens when the contract runs out and the real marriage starts.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Fifty Shades Darker for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy intense contemporary romance built around longing, power and a woman's conflicted return to a man who hurt her. Be aware that the sexual content is explicit and the relationship's push-pull can feel claustrophobic rather than romantic.
- What is Fifty Shades Darker like?
- The mood is heady and conflicted, with a slow, intimate pace and a voice that keeps circling back to wanting and doubt. Feels like longing, tenderness and dread. About love, power and identity.
- What should I read after Fifty Shades Darker?
- If you liked Fifty Shades Darker, try Haunting Adeline (H.D. Carlton), Imagine Me (Tahereh Mafi) and Ugly Love (Colleen Hoover).
A taste of the feed
The strange comfort of never being able to escape someone.
What you’re seeing now is what I see every day. No matter how far I run, how hard I try to escape you—you’re everywhere I go. You’re everything I see. Loving you is like being trapped in a house of mirrors, little mouse. And I’ve never felt so at home while being so lost inside you.
Haunting Adeline · H.D. Carlton
The particular fury of a wedding morning with nothing to wear.
But it’s my wedding day,” she says. “And I have nothing to wear.” “You’re right.” I kiss the top of her head. “I’m going to kill him.
Imagine Me · Tahereh Mafi
What love costs when you stop pretending it is beautiful.
Ugly love becomes you. Consumes you. Makes you hate it all. Makes you realize that all the beautiful parts aren’t even worth it. Without the beautiful, you’ll never risk feeling the ugly. So you give it all up. You give it all up. You never want love again, no matter what kind it is, because no type of love will ever be worth living through the ugly love again.
Ugly Love · Colleen Hoover
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